The Helmet Update by Email

Summary: The Consumer Product Safety Commission has published its bicycle
helmet standard, and it appeared in the Federal Register on March 10,
1998. That starts the clock ticking, and the standard becomes law on
March 10, 1999. That is about a month later than we had predicted in our February 5 email newsletter. This is a welcome event for consumers, since it
nails down the effective date of the standard.

CPSC Publishes

After some delay the Consumer Product Safety Commission published
yesterday its bicycle helmet standard, as approved on February 5th,
in the Federal Register. This is the legal act necessary to begin the
one-year mandatory waiting period before the Rule becomes final. The
standard will become law on March 10, 1999, and can be used as an
interim standard after yesterday (March 10, 1998).

The standard is unchanged from the version approved by the Commission
on February 5th. You can access it from the Federal Register server
(if it is not overloaded) at

where by tomorrow we will also have the text of the standard itself,
a shorter document than the full announcement, taken from the Federal
Register's server.

The Announcement

Here is some text from the CPSC announcement, taken directly from
the Federal Register file:

SUMMARY: Pursuant to the Children's Bicycle Helmet Safety Act of 1994,
the Commission is issuing a safety standard that will require all
bicycle helmets to meet impact-attenuation and other requirements.

The standard establishes requirements derived from one or more of
the voluntary standards applicable to bicycle helmets. In addition, the
standard includes requirements specifically applicable to children's
helmets and requirements to prevent helmets from coming off during an
accident. The standard also contains testing and recordkeeping
requirements to ensure that bicycle helmets meet the standard's
requirements.

DATES: Effective Date: This rule is effective March 10, 1999.

Applicability Dates: This rule applies to bicycle helmets
manufactured after March 10, 1999. Interim mandatory standards that
went into effect on March 17, 1995, will continue to apply to bicycle
helmets manufactured from March 17, 1995, until March 10, 1999,
inclusive. In addition, as of March 10, 1998, firms will have the
option of marketing helmets meeting the standard in this final rule
before its effective date.

Incorporation by Reference: The incorporation by reference of certain
publications listed in the rule is approved by the Director of the
Federal Register as of March 10, 1999.

Standard Comparison

As noted in our February 5 newsletter, the CPSC standard is
comparable in most respects to the ASTM and Snell B-90 standards now
used by most manufacturers in the U.S. market. We would expect the
majority of today's helmets to meet it. Any helmet manufactured for
sale in the U.S. after March 10, 1999, must meet it by law.

We have added a Web page with a quick comparison of bicycle helmet
standards, comparing this standard with ASTM and Snell's B-90 and
B-95 standards, as well as the defunct ANSI standard. You can find it
at